Smoking takes lives in a second

Smoking causes one in 10 deaths worldwide, a new study shows, half of them in just four countries - China, India, the US and Russia.

Despite decades of tobacco control policies, population growth has seen an increased number of smokers, it warned.

Researchers said mortality could rise further as tobacco
companies aggressively targeted new markets, especially in the developing world.

The report was published in the medical journal The Lancet.

"Despite more than half a century of unequivocal evidence of the harmful effects of tobacco on health, today, one in every four men in the world is a daily smoker," said senior author Dr
Emmanuela Gakidou.

"Smoking remains the second largest risk factor for early death and disability, and so to further reduce its impact we must  intensify tobacco control to further reduce smoking prevalence and attributable burden."

The Global Burden of Diseases report was based on  
smokinghabits in 195 countries and territories between
 1990 and 2015.

It found that nearly one billion people smoked daily in 2015 - one in four men and one in 20 women.